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Like or Dislike: The five-star approach to social media ratings

April 13, 2010 By 2 Comments

Liking content on social media channels  is an ‘all or nothing’ affair. This is why YouTube recently replaced its five-star video rating system with a simpler ‘thumbs up or thumbs down’ rating system.

YouTube has been considering the change since last fall, when it noticed that the majority of YouTube videos either have a five-star rating — or no rating at all.

“Great videos prompt action; anything less prompts indifference,” said Shiva Rajaraman,  senior product manager at Google/YouTube. “ The ratings system is primarily being used as a seal of approval, not as an editorial indicator of what the community thinks about a video. Rating a video joins favoriting and sharing as a way to tell the world that this is something you love.”

This may be why Facebook is replacing the button that allows users to “Become a Fan” with a “Like” button (according to recent reports from ABC News and other sources).  Facebook says that users click “Like” almost twice as much as they click “Become a Fan.” As a result, the proposed change in symantecs should increase the number of fans/followers businesses attract by portraying a lower level of commitment to being a brand’s follower than ‘becoming their fan’ implies.

Facebook said that the move is “part of a larger effort to improve user experience, increase engagement and promote consistency.”

Credits: Photo is courtesy of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a 2006 mockumentary comedy film directed by Larry Charles. Distributed by 20th Century Fox.

..What Boys Like

The Waitresses were best known for the song “I Know What Boys Like,” from their 1982 debut album Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful. “I Know What Boys Like” was originally released as a single in 1980 but did not chart. In 1982 the song peaked at #62 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #23 on Billboard’s Top Tracks chart.  The song has been performed my many other performers…including Herbert the Pervert, from The Family Guy, as he auditions to become the church organist.

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About Troy Janisch

Troy Janisch, Publisher of Social Meteor, is a digital marketing professional and social media beatnik. He is a contributor to SmartBrief on Social Media. Troy leads the marketing team at Sentry Insurance, but don’t let that scare you. He rarely talks about insurance in mixed company [grin]. Like a good social media program, SocialMeteor.com is all about content. It’s not a consulting company or marketing agency.

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  • http://www.endresultmarketing.com Doug Tangwall

    I think that the choice of measurement scales should be driven by the nature of the social media content and the business goals of the site, but it’s important to keep the wishes of the user community front and center. The need for discrimination—measuring actual differences between items—versus a popularity model, the benefits of gaining greater engagement or commitment from smaller groups of fans versus more watered-down “likers,” and the importance of relatedness through sharing are considerations that should affect what’s measured and the scale(s) used.

    YouTube’s business model is closer to that of Digg: a popularity contest. Scales with only two choices work in this context because they’re quick, intuitive and require less passion or emotion to elicit a response, although I would keep the favorite button as a way to indicate a higher level of commitment because relatedness is a key part of the YouTube model.

    On the other hand, a social media site that seeks to help users evaluate the best restaurants, for example, would want something more discriminating than an edible/inedible scale. I prefer scales with a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 11 choices in this context.